The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1887-06-03
instance as she might have gone to

tuaG Oh any OCHef SOiulefJ DuG nc owed
his life to her unHaeging care, and
when he had passed the point OF dan.
ger gratitude was mingled with a
warmer sentiment. The by-play oil
love ran on unchecked in the fierce
theatre OF war, ana they became
pledged to marry. They were of equal
social rank, Lieutenant de Rochelle
having lineage that reached the
Huguenot settlement of the state.
The marriage was appointed for the
Christmas eve OF 1864, in the gloom
that then overshadowed the beleagued
town. ltwas sombre holiday sea
son for the people driven from their
shattered homes by the steady rain oil
shot and shell, nearly exhausted oil
the commonest necessaries OF life and
shrouded in mourning for lost members
OF every household.
The Pickens family mansion was
within the line OF fire from the FEEDER
al batteries, and months previously
had been abandoned. Miss Pickeng
had been received into the resi-
dence OF her relative, General Rhett
which was supposed to be beyond the
range OF their guns, and had so far es
capped being hit by any of the mon
strous prolectiles that flew into the
city. On Christmas eve the wedding
party were assembled in the parlo1
OF the Rhett mansion, one oil
the large and handsome houses 50
common on all the river frontage o
old Charleston. Divested ofits costly
and elaborate decorations that had
gone to swell this or that Confederate
fund, the great room looked barren,
chilly and forbidding. Candles were
almost an unattainable luxury ther
the city gas works had long beer
wrecked by exploding shels-and
some homemade device OF illumina.
tion only lit up the little space occ,r
pied by the lover and bride and clergy.
man. Save for the brilliant uniform
of the soldier and the white robes oI
the priest OF the Episcopal Church,
there seemed no color OF warmth in
in the apartment. Finery appropri
ate to the wedding ceremonies OF dis.
tnguished people was not to be
found in tho Coniederacy, and while
the dozen OF guests were men
and women who had known the
opulent and luxurious life OF good
society in the ante-bellum day
of Charleston they were now
reduced to homespuns and coarse
cottons. With the harsh discordanct
OF the bombardment filling their ears,
and with the knowledge that the
bridegroom must at once quit his
wife's side for service with his com.
mand, a sense OF apprehension and sor.
row brooded over the nssemblage.
The most serene and self-possessed oi
all present, the newspaper reports
said, was Miss Pickens, whose stately
beauty was heightened by contrast
with the surroundings.
The clergyman's voice broke the 81.
lence OF the group with the reading o'
the marriage form, and he had Just
reached the interrogatories when Tho
horrible roar OF n shell vastly louder
than those flying over the distant sec.
tions OF the city drowned every othe,
sound. 1t came from an advanced
battery that General Foster had re-
Gently opened we'll up on the
inner side OF Morris Island and within
a fourmile range OF the Rhett resi-
dence. The 200 pounds OF iron load
ed with incendiary material described
u trajectory that ended upon the
roof OF tha house, from whence it
crashed through the intermediate
floors and burst in the midst of the
wedding party.
When the sitting smoke had cleared
away and men could breathe free
from the suffocating fumes of the pow
der, the apartment-its walls and
ceiling partly blown out, it's furniture
Knocked into chips, blood spattered
everywhere, fragments OF human
formes strewing the hoors-was a
scene OF indescrbable terror. Three
OF the wedding guests had been IN.
stantly killed, and not person IN the
room had escaped injury OF some sort.
Lieutenant de Rochelle and the
clergyman we1e only slightly hurt, but
Miss Pickens was PROSTATE and sat.
urated with the blood that streamed
from where her shoulder had been
cruelty torn by ~ fragment OF the shell.
A surgeon pronounced her dead, but
when she was laid upon u couch she
slightly revived and endeavored to
speak, each heave OF her breast causing
the blood to flow in an increasing cur.
rent.
De Rochelle approached her side
and placed his ear close to the lips
that were painfully struggling to utter
ineligible words. Her eyes sought
the clergyman with a look that begged
him to draw nigh. He did so, and de
Rochelle, catching as by inspiration
her meaning, asked her if she would
have the remainder OF the ceremony
performed before she died. Again she
made the effort to speak and failed,
and the surgeon warned them that
her life was ebbing fast; but the con
sent which she could not voice found
expression in an infection of the head.
Then the clergyman, with his robe
stained from the wound he had re
ceived, stood over the couch OF the
dying woman, whose hand had sought
that OF he' lover, and proceeded with
the reading OF the holy ritual III the
apartment from which the slain had
not yet been removed and where the
blood was still fresh and reeking,
When he put the question whether
she would have the man beside her
for her welded husband her attempt
W 'tHS"ei Drought On lhe parOSy ySlhS
OF mortal dissolution. Foam necked
her lips and her face became ashen
gray, but with n final and supreme ex.
ertion, she murmured, will" Christ
mas came in at midnight with the
laundering diapason OF the never-si.
lent cannonade, and the morning sun
broke upon the dead face OF Margaret
Pickens de Rochelle. And this is the
story told by the marble IN the Christ
church home OF the silent majority,
and remembered by Charlest onans
unforgetful OF the beauty and grace Of
the daughter OF South Carolina's S first
war governor.
Railroads i'll War.
st. Nicholas.